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Technical picture
One technical deficit “Next Generation” has to “Original Series” is there is some digital noise flaring up. Many shots are totally clear in the high definition way I was describing above. Unfortunately, a lot of scenes on the bridge of the Enterprise are peppered with white spots.

Blu-ray aficionados are familiar with this. Sometimes in holding the picture together for 1080p, it creates a haze of white specs. It means they couldn’t create a 100% perfect picture, but you still get the sharpness, colors and detail of high definition with a few flaws. Oddly, the HD trailer doesn’t have those flaws in comparable shots. Only the actual episodes.

Technical picture
One technical deficit “Next Generation” has to “Original Series” is there is some digital noise flaring up. Many shots are totally clear in the high definition way I was describing above. Unfortunately, a lot of scenes on the bridge of the Enterprise are peppered with white spots.

Blu-ray aficionados are familiar with this. Sometimes in holding the picture together for 1080p, it creates a haze of white specs. It means they couldn’t create a 100% perfect picture, but you still get the sharpness, colors and detail of high definition with a few flaws. Oddly, the HD trailer doesn’t have those flaws in comparable shots. Only the actual episodes.

From their review which was not mentioned in any other review. This is a very technical video critique.

I think it wasn't mentioned in any other reviews because he doesn't know what he's talking about.

Another gem from him:

You can totally tell when they used CGI to recreate effects that couldn’t be restored. It looks great but I wonder if an upconvert might have been more authentic since it’s so obvious these are new shots.

I think most people can see from the comparisons that an upconvert would look like crap. I wonder if he could really "totally tell" what shots are CG if he hadn't read about it before online.

Was dreading seeing When the Bough Breaks again, but it was actually pretty decent (at least by Season One standards). The basic idea is a bit silly of course, but somehow Patrick Stewart once again makes you care and feel the urgency of the situation.

It's hard NOT to get a huge charge hearing him deliver a line like "You call yourselves a civilized people, but what you have just done constitutes an act of utter barbarity!"

And I have to admit the image of him holding the girl's sad-looking flower at the end made me completely bust up.

Technical picture
One technical deficit “Next Generation” has to “Original Series” is there is some digital noise flaring up. Many shots are totally clear in the high definition way I was describing above. Unfortunately, a lot of scenes on the bridge of the Enterprise are peppered with white spots.

Blu-ray aficionados are familiar with this. Sometimes in holding the picture together for 1080p, it creates a haze of white specs. It means they couldn’t create a 100% perfect picture, but you still get the sharpness, colors and detail of high definition with a few flaws. Oddly, the HD trailer doesn’t have those flaws in comparable shots. Only the actual episodes.

Well it "makes sense" that no one gets headaches anymore, or they're uncommon. Presumably in a normal situation if you were getting a headache a remedy for it can easily be gotten. But there's a difference between the type of headache you get that annoys you for 20 minutes until the Tylenol kicks in and a massive, pounding, headache that's pretty much life-stopping like Picard was getting. (Often times a symptom of a bigger problem or condition.)

That's what Crusher found to be so odd ontop of the fact she couldn't get rid of it and it kept persisting.

And, yeah, it really should have been a clue to everyone that something "bigger" was going on here.

Technical picture
One technical deficit “Next Generation” has to “Original Series” is there is some digital noise flaring up. Many shots are totally clear in the high definition way I was describing above. Unfortunately, a lot of scenes on the bridge of the Enterprise are peppered with white spots.

Blu-ray aficionados are familiar with this. Sometimes in holding the picture together for 1080p, it creates a haze of white specs. It means they couldn’t create a 100% perfect picture, but you still get the sharpness, colors and detail of high definition with a few flaws. Oddly, the HD trailer doesn’t have those flaws in comparable shots. Only the actual episodes.

From their review which was not mentioned in any other review. This is a very technical video critique.

The reason why other reviewers didn't mention it, is because it is not digital noise, it's filmgrain. And it's perfectly normal.

White specks are usually caused by dark contaminants on the negative (which then become white when colors are reversed during the scan). Dust would be the most likely culprit... or redeposited sediment (like silver halide crystals) floating around in the processing chemicals... or just general contaminates in the water used to mix the chemicals or wash the film with. Usually that stuff is pretty well filtered out though, so it's rare.

But yeah, it's not digital noise like that reviewer claimed.

__________________"Shake off all the fears & servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion." -Thomas Jefferson

Watched Justice and The Battle today. Both had very clean and prisitine looking transfers. They're so good, I'm almost getting used to the picture quality.

I'm pleasantly surprised that the new audio mixes do seem to add to a more active soundfield for these episodes. Especially the sound effects on The Battle were great. When Picard remembers the events on the Stargazer the soundfield is filled by the sound of fire and alarms, coming from pretty much every speaker. It sounds fantastic.

From their review which was not mentioned in any other review. This is a very technical video critique.

The reason why other reviewers didn't mention it, is because it is not digital noise, it's filmgrain. And it's perfectly normal.

White specks are usually caused by dark contaminants on the negative (which then become white when colors are reversed during the scan). Dust would be the most likely culprit... or redeposited sediment (like silver halide crystals) floating around in the processing chemicals... or just general contaminates in the water used to mix the chemicals or wash the film with. Usually that stuff is pretty well filtered out though, so it's rare.

But yeah, it's not digital noise like that reviewer claimed.

Thanks for explaining that. Always wondered what the cause was of those white specks. They're very noticable in Where No Man Has Gone Before, especially in the darker sickbay scenes. But becuase the reviewer above uses the phrase "haze of white specs" I don't think he means the occasionaly dust speck, but he's actually referring to the filmgrain. Also, the white dust should be most noticable in dark scenes, not the well lit bridge scenes....

Just watched "Heart of Glory" (still a good episode with great music and an infinitely more interesting version of the Klingons compared to what we got later on) and was surprised that they actually reworked the explosion of the Batris from what we were shown in the season one trailer on the Next Level disc. I wonder why they did that.

Also, I noticed the flickering (almost strobing!) light in the transporter wall panel that was mentioned upthread. Kind of distracting once you've seen it.

As for the reason for the interlaced footage in "Code of Honor"; I'm not sure if I get why they did that. Is it an error in the original film material, something that happened during the scanning of the negatives or did someone screw up the mastering for the blu-ray disc itself? (BTW, I noticed another of these "interlace" errors in "Heart of Glory" at the end of the scene where Picard first speaks with the commander of the Klingon ship.)

Also watched "Datalore" yesterday. Brilliant music in the scene where they enter Soong's laboratory! But oh my, how annoying is it that no-one even listens to what Wesley has to say? That was really absurd. And I actually think there should be a scene in the end where Picard apologizes to Wesley.

__________________Bashir: »Out of all the stories you told me, which ones were true and which ones weren't?«Garak: »My dear doctor, they're all true.«Bashir: »Even the lies?«Garak: »Especially the lies.«

As for the reason for the interlaced footage in "Code of Honor"; I'm not sure if I get why they did that. Is it an error in the original film material, something that happened during the scanning of the negatives or did someone screw up the mastering for the blu-ray disc itself? (BTW, I noticed another of these "interlace" errors in "Heart of Glory" at the end of the scene where Picard first speaks with the commander of the Klingon ship.)

I don't think it's interlaced (they're not working with interlaced content -- everything should be 1080p, 23.976 fps)... it just has half the vertical resolution it's supposed to have (540p). It was either imported incorrectly into their editing program or had some weird effect applied to it that caused it to be rendered out with half the vertical resolution.

It's possible it happened during the scan, but that seems unlikely. But it's definitely a question Ex Astris Scientia should ask Mike Okuda, because we don't want to see this happen too often. I was hoping the shot in "Code of Honor" was the only instance.

__________________"Shake off all the fears & servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion." -Thomas Jefferson

But oh my, how annoying is it that no-one even listens to what Wesley has to say? That was really absurd. And I actually think there should be a scene in the end where Picard apologizes to Wesley.

Ha, yeah. As annoying as Wesley could be, it would still be nice if the crew acknowledged that "Hey, this kid is actually pretty SMART and saved our asses a few times already. We should pay attention when he has something to say!"

Is it just me, or did they tone down the transporter effect from Farpoint? I was REALLY liking the new, brighter effect they created for that episode, but in later ones it looks like they dimmed it much more to match the original effect.

The Picard Maneuver never made sense to me. First of all, how is it no one before had ever used the "light lag" effect to make a tactical advantage?

I like how, in the many years since the Picard Maneuver was first used, nobody had been able to develop a defense against it, but Data came up with one pretty much off the top of his head and it was almost as simple as the Maneuver itself.

It’s a lack of creativity by the writers.

Well, Data did make the point of saying that the Galaxy class had enough power to pull off the defensive maneuver he suggested.

So that tells me no ship before the Galaxy line had enough power to pull it off, even if they had thought of it.

Is it just me, or did they tone down the transporter effect from Farpoint? I was REALLY liking the new, brighter effect they created for that episode, but in later ones it looks like they dimmed it much more to match the original effect.

The highlights in the effect do look dimmer on the "Code of Honor" screencap, but that could be due to the exact frame that was captured (it's a dissolving effect). Also, in the "Farpoint" shot, the actors are being lit from above and below by the practical transporter lights, so it makes the effect look brighter overall.

__________________"Shake off all the fears & servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion." -Thomas Jefferson